girl with puppetWe know that teaching children about safety works!  According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, children escape abductions 82% of the time through their own actions:

  • 29% actively resisted by yelling, kicking, pulling away, running away, or attracting attention.
  • 53% recognized something was not right and responded by walking or running away.

These are precisely the behaviors modeled in the S.A.F.E. Child Puppet Show.  The puppet show is designed for 3 to 8 year olds and features Detective Buddy who teaches Billy and his friend, Barb, how to stay safe with four important lessons.  After each lesson, Billy and Barb encounter real-life situations where they are required to use the skills they learn from Detective Buddy.  Through their efforts, Detective Buddy is able to keep them safe and capture Smee, a neighborhood predator.  The four important safety tips Billy, Barb, and audience members learn are:

S. is for “Say where you are going and who you are going with”
A. is for “Never go Alone
F. is for “No Free stuff”
E. is for “Escape: Run, yell, and tell”

leslie-with-puppets-720x450Each child receives a wallet-sized detachable card to remind him or her of these lessons.  As additional reinforcement, a packet is sent home to each child’s parent which includes: a letter describing the lessons learned by their child that day, a Child Identification Kit, a Find My Child Brochure, and a list of other Texas Center for the Missing educational programs that are available to the community.

Prior to each puppet show performance, the coordinating agency will receive the Puppet Activity Worksheet for Educators .  The project serves as a supplemental activity for participating students to make their own puppets.

Target audiences of the S.A.F.E. Child Puppet Show include, but are not limited to , schools (public and private), childcare providers, domestic violence survivors and their children, after school programs, places of worship, libraries, civic organizations, and other direct service providers.

Request the S.A.F.E. Child Puppet Show to come to your group via the form below.

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Request a Texas Center for the Missing Program

If you would like Texas Center for the Missing to provide a presentation, training, or materials to your group or organization, please submit a formal request below. We will contact you shortly with our availability. Thank you for your interest in Texas Center for the Missing's programs!

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